Evidence of meeting #21 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vote.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Thank you very much for being frugal with your time.
Mr. Albrecht.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank also Mr. Mayrand and his colleagues for being here today.
There are two concerns that have dominated most of our discussion today, one surrounding the turnout of university students and young people and the other the health concerns regarding the potential H1N1. In relation to the turnout of youth, certainly it's our obligation to remove any unnecessary obstacles and make it as easy as we can.
What kind of follow-up occurs? I'm familiar with a number of schools that use the Student Vote practice, whereby a high school will have all-candidate debates and an election and so on. Has there ever been any follow-up to see whether those practices are productive in carrying through to encourage those same young people to continue voting? For example, in a certain area where a high number of schools use that practice, does it translate into a greater turnout for those youth later on?
12:40 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Student Vote is a program that we've sponsored for the last several general elections, and we'll continue to sponsor it for the next one, for sure.
One of the things that struck us is how to measure the impact of these efforts. We're looking now with Student Vote at building an evaluation framework that would allow us to assess the long-term effectiveness of that program and how we can make it better. This is something we're working on with Student Vote authorities.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
I would encourage you to pursue that. Anecdotally, for me it has been a very positive experience to go into these schools and engage in the all-candidates debates and see the high level of interest that's there. I'm very encouraged by it.
Secondly, concerning the health concerns surrounding the potential H1N1, my colleagues have raised the issue surrounding seniors' homes and elementary schools, in light of recent reports that H1N1 may also be highly likely to be transmitted through airborne spreading. Yes, hand-sanitizers are necessary, and we need to keep doing everything we can. This heightens the need for us to be cautious in entering seniors' homes and schools.
One perhaps administrative detail—it may seem I'm interfering in administrative detail—is about a simple thing: having up to a hundred people walking behind that little booth and using the same pencil that previous people have used. Is that a consideration we should be concerned about as well?
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
12:40 p.m.
Harold Proulx
The follow-up question would be, have we examined at all what the extra potential costs of doing all of these things might be—hand-sanitizers and whatever other measures may be necessary?
12:40 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
As I mentioned earlier, we will have hand sanitizers in all polling stations as well as disinfectant wipes at all polling sites to make sure that the common surfaces are clean.
We are considering the issue of pencils. We will have to discuss this matter with public health authorities in terms of whether that would be an effective measure or a useful measure. If need be we will have to look at securing, again, an adequate number of pencils. We're talking about one per elector. We're talking about a potential.... I think we need to balance that, of course, with the situation as it evolves, the effectiveness of the measure, and of course the cost. Once again, our first preoccupation is ensuring safety and health.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
It sounds as if Mr. Proulx has an RFP ready for you.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
We may have some procurement issues around this.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
12:45 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mayrand, it's thought that it might prove impossible to hold a general election day on a Sunday. However, to go back to Mr. Guimond's idea, I would like to know whether you think it would be important to consider holding advance polls on a Sunday, not only to increase voter turn-out, but also to recruit more election officials.
In addition, one of the objectives of your 2008-2013 strategic plan is accessibility. You talk about testing innovative voting methods. It seems that one of the methods you're considering is Internet registration. Could you tell us where you stand in that regard and how registration could be done?
12:45 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
All right.
One of our concerns is that, despite all the efforts made over the past 10 years, between 1.5 million and two million voters are still not registered. In addition, voters do not have access to tools enabling them to determine easily if they are registered. The first service that would be offered to them would be to check whether they are registered via the Internet. There is also the possibility that people could update their personal voter information, such as people who have just changed addresses and want to report it, but have neither a driver's licence nor any other source of information and want to use an electronic service that links them directly to Elections Canada.
The third level of service would require that the act be amended, from what I understand. The idea is to enable unregistered voters to register for the first time. This involves all kinds of issues, whether it be privacy, security or fraud prevention in particular. We are examining those implications. We definitely don't want to compromise the integrity of our lists. We think we'll be able to offer a level of on-line registration service starting in March 2011. We'll definitely be able to enable voters to check and see whether they are in fact registered and whether they are registered at their right address. We may be able to amend their personal information. However, the addition of voters by electronic means will require that the act be amended, which I'm going to propose to your committee in the coming months.
Things are progressing, but the situation is still subject to the vagaries of potential elections. Whatever the case may be, we think we can start offering those services to voters starting in March 2011.
12:45 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
I think e-registration and the option of checking to see whether you're registered would be very appealing for young people, particularly if they turn 18 shortly before the election. These are administrative mechanisms that young people aren't used to, but, as parents or adults, we can urge them to inquire into the matter and to use this service. It could facilitate matters. I encourage you to continue in that direction.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Young people expect to be able to conduct their transactions electronically.
12:45 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
I'm not really in favour of electronic voting, but I think that registration and data verification are a good solution.
What do you think of the idea of holding advance polling days on Sundays?
12:50 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
From what I know, a bill that is currently under examination by Parliament is proposing to increase the number of voting days. One of the suggestions it contains is that an advance polling day be held on a Sunday. There would thus be four advance polling days. That represents administrative challenges in terms of staff recruitment and availability, but these are matters that we're going to have to manage. I think the intention is to make voting more accessible. To do that, we'll have to offer voters more options. If being able to vote on a Sunday suits them more, I don't see why we should oppose it in the short run—on the contrary.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
Thank you.
I would like to come back to the issue of the remuneration of election workers. When was the last time the salary, or the tariff, or whatever you call it, that they receive was increased?
12:50 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
I believe it was in 2007.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
Was that an actual increase of the lump sum, or was that through indexation?
12:50 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
It was mostly indexation, but also a bit for additional work and additional responsibility that they were taking.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
October 8th, 2009 / 12:50 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
It didn't reflect the additional responsibilities that were given under Bill C-31.
